Sean Carroll has emphasised the role of promoters (combinatorial switches which determine the level of expression of a gene - where the switches have multiple inputs) in evolution, has authored "Endless Forms Most Beautiful," and has been a leading figure in evolutionary developmental biology. The following article is a nice introduction, more or less, and mentions a new book which he has coming out: "The Making of the Fittest."

Slinger wrote:Charles Darwin would have been impressed with Sean Carroll's findings.

Carroll, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin, has helped push the boundaries of what is known about evolution, taking the "what" from Darwin's groundbreaking research 150 years ago and finding the "how."

It's in the genes.

Carroll, working out of his lab at the Bock Laboratories building on Linden Drive on the west side of campus, has discovered that genes have "switches" that can be either "on" or "off," and that, in turn, determines whether, say, a butterfly gets spots and where they're located on its body....